White-eared Hummingbird

Scott and I spent the afternoon in Ramsey Canyon, near Hereford, today, hoping for a good session with the Rufous-backed Robin that’s been hanging out there recently; no such luck, but it was a pleasant time anyway, highlighted by a male White-eared Hummingbird at the feeders. In the east, I always had to get my ear back in with the warblers in the spring; out here in Arizona, it’s the squeaks and chips of the hummingbirds that require refreshing this time of year, and it was good to sit and listen to Broad-billed, Broad-tailed, Black-chinned, Magnificent, and Blue-throated Hummingbirds all at the feeders.

I haven’t found Ramsey all that exciting these last few years, but today the oaks were in bloom and full of warblers.  Wilson’s Warbler was by far the most abundant, but there were also numbers of Painted Redstarts, Audubon’s Warblers, Black-throated Gray Warblers, and a couple of Townsend’s Warblers. Plumbeous and Hutton’s Vireos were singing, and late in the afternoon a Warbling Vireo dropped in. We noticed a couple of Lazuli Buntings when we arrived, and their numbers increased all afternoon until the lawn of the Ramsey Canyon B&B was covered with them, most of them males. A nice scene, enlivened even more by Summer Tanager, Scott’s and Bullock’s Orioles, and Black-headed Grosbeaks; these truly are tropical climes!

A screech-owl has been in a sycamore cavity above the feeders for several weeks now, and it popped into visibility a couple of times while we were there, only to be chased back into the dark by the rambunctiousness of Arizona gray squirrels. The bird has been identified by others as a Whiskered Screech-Owl, but it sure looked to us like a Western Screech-Owl, with heavily streaked (rather than barred) breast feathers; the surest way in the daylight is the size of the feet, which this one, however, kept demurely out of sight. Have to get back up there in the dark sometime and listen!